Sunday, 10 February 2008

AD Gozo campaign: A visit to the west

Today 3 of the campaign team members joined me in to start door to door visits and flyer distribution. This is my first time campaigning for myself. I am used to campaign for others. Now I am getting used to campaign for myself.

It is Sunday afternoon and we decided to go to Gharb - my village. The people here do not need much to learn who I am. We know each other. I got very positive comments.

Besides the usual 'awguri', others preferred to discuss with me on different issues.

The Dwejra issue copped up. As I said in my previous blog entry (click here), many people from Gharb got a direct connection with Dwejra. "Why are they giving permissions to build new information centre with a restaurant? Could they not open a tender/offer for people who already owns a property at Dwejra? I can't understand why they are saying they want to protect Dwejra from further development yet they are building this information centre with rooms for NGOs and a restaurant. They could have make use of the present premises. Why more building and yet they are calling it the Dwejra heritage Park?" one of the voters commented quite angrily.

The firework factories was also another topic and many residents feel that the current local council administration did not pressure enough against the authority to stop the permits for further firework factories at San Dimitri. "Of course the council did not make enough. How could a PN mayor object to a PN administered MEPA?" one voter asked me. I told him that the AD Gozo Regional Committee wrote to the Gharb Local council that we would like to meet and discuss this issue, however our offer was refused. To be more precise, our request was never answered.

Then I met two young men. They are hunters. "We would have voted for you but you are against us. I am not going to vote." "Neither am I" said his friend. Indeed the Green Party was always clear. "We never lied to anyone. Unlike Gonzi and Sant, Alternattiva Demokratika was always clear with hunters and bird trappers" I told them.

Next.

I also met a Maltese couple who come to Gozo regularly during week-ends. Their response was great and quite insightful. "We invested our money in Gozo. We bought this farmhouse here in Gharb. We like Gozo since this island is different from Malta""In what ways?" I asked."Well, its more green, more open spaces, no highrise buildings and the countryside is still protected...for this reason enough we are going to vote Green.""Thank you" I said."Give us 30 more of your flyers. We know many other Maltese who are also registered as voters here in Gozo. We want you elected to keep protecting the island from the few greedy people around."